What ASU Football Just Accomplished Is One Of The Most Insane Experiences In My Nearly 20 Years Of Being A Sun Devil

Sam Hodde. Getty Images.

If I could give one bit of life advice to any younger stoolie who might be reading this blog, it's simple.

Go to college at a big school in warm weather.

Wherever that might be for you, do it. If you're on the fence because maybe it's across the country and you don't know a single person, do it. If you're starting to think about what type of school to maybe visit and apply to, there's your answer. Trust me. Pick any one you want, but make sure it's a warm weather big school. 

For me, that decision came in 2005. I was only one of two people from my entire graduating class to go west of the Mississippi, mostly because they were all smart and got into really good East Coast schools whereas I was more interested in the warm weather, 50,000+ students and a 99.6% acceptance rate. 

Now nearly 20 years later, I can say with no hesitation that becoming a Sun Devil was the best decision I've ever made in pretty much every aspect of my life. Part of the reason I wanted to go there was because they played in the Pac-10, and this was at a time when that was a loaded conference in every sport but especially football. The classic Reggie Bush USC teams, MJD at UCLA, Dennis Dixon being a motherfucking problem at Oregon, part of the fun was getting to see all these great players and teams from opposing schools in person. 

I'll never forget my first season in 2005 ASU was on the verge of upsetting Jamarcus Russell and 5th ranked LSU. The entire student section was ready to jump the fence and rush the field, and then this happened

Just an absolute kick to the dick. To make matters even worse, a few weeks later ASU was finally on College Gameday against the #1 team in the country USC, one of the most ridiculous days in my entire college career. ASU found itself with a 21-3 halftime lead before LenDale White and Reggie Bush decided to completely take the game over. God damn was it so annoying watching your team try and stop Reggie Bush. Everything was 9 yards every time he touched the ball.

I'll never forget what Sun Devil Stadium was like that day. Easily 120+ degrees, ASU games were almost always at night because of how goddamn hot it was, so this one being right in the middle of the day resulted in everyone eventually dying of heat stroke. The fact that they then also choked away the game didn't help, but the way the stadium was shaking during the good times of that game will stick with me forever.

From there, I saw the Sun Devils get to as high as #6 in the country in 2007, but for the most part every season since has been somewhat of a disaster. If there was one thing you could always bank on it's that ASU Football would finish either 7-6 or 8-5 and play in some obscure Bowl game. Year after year it never failed. Every once in a while there would be a 10 win season, but then everything would immediately fall apart with cheating sanctions and whatnot. 

I'm not kidding, they have defined mediocrity for the past 17+ years

So to see what this year's team just accomplished, after being projected to finish last in the conference, is complete insanity to anyone who follows and pays attention to this program. 

As good as those teams were during my '05-09 tenure, even they never managed to pull off something like this. You can say with confidence that this was the biggest ASU Football accomplishment this century which as someone who has watched a whole lot of dogshit over the last 20 years is a little hard to comprehend. ASU never does shit like this. Instead, they usually found ways to break your heart in the most painful way possible. At least that's how it's been during my whole Sun Devil Experience. 

Now here we are and Kenny Dillingham has legitimately changed everything. What a guy.

I'm not going to get too ahead of myself when it comes to the Playoff and start talking about a team of destiny or anything like that just yet. At this point, I'm just happy to be involved. Finally, my College Football 2025 dynasty success is translating into the real world, so maybe credit to me? Am I partially the reason this happened? Many people are saying yes, not me, but many people.

If you've made it this far, thank you for coming to my TED Talk. I just needed somewhere to brain dump what watching this game today meant as a proud Sun Devil, because I legitimately didn't think we'd ever see the day a moment like this happened and it wasn't a video game.

And I'm not kidding by the way. Go to a warm weather school. The current Big 12 champs are certainly a decent option.